The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

AP's Letter To Parents

My AP printed a letter to parents to inform them of the math department's grading policy. He included a bunch of his usual double talk about the way grades are calculated. He mentioned deducting points for homework and lack of class participation. He mentioned nothing about giving kids anything extra for these things.

He has repeated reprimanded us for giving make-up exams to kids who are absent. Many of of sneak around and give them anyways. (One of the reasons I love my trailer is that it is so easy to do this without his knowledge.) Of course kids need a good excuse if they have missed an exam and they can't pull this too often. Yet, in spite of his constant demand that we not give make-ups he has included this paragraph:

Students who are absent on a test day due to a good cause absence should not be punished-all math teachers will either drop one exam grade or give a make-up exam. Make-up exam grades that are far higher or lower than a student's averagewill not be counted.

Maybe I am overly sensitive, but that one paragraph seemed kind of punitive to me. It also contradicts everything he has been saying to teachers all along.

We were all supposed to hand parents a copy of this letter at the conferences. I didn't stop by the math office until conferences were over so I never got it to give out. He'll probably have a problem with that if he finds out. Too bad. They should have been available more than five minutes in advance. I know he would have a problem with a teacher leaving things to the last minute.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't get it....even if you are absent from a workplace for a "good reason" you still have to do the work you missed later. Doesn't this mean that they aren't really responsible for the content? If they bother to take a make up, shouldn't they basically write their names on them and just hand it in since, according to this policy, getting a zero just means that it is dropped by the teacher??? That is garbage. I'm sorry you have to deal with such ridiculousness. Why do they care how you run your testing??

For my freshmen, if they do super-lousy on an important exam, I make them study, and take a second exam. And occasionally, a third. What good does it do me to keep accurate grades, if the kid can't factor trinomials, how can they work on algebraic fractions?

At first they get excited by having the chance to 'retest' but eventually some of them catch on - and sort of wish I would just let them slide.

I think factoring is the worst, since I require something like a 75 or 80...

POd:"I can't do this much longer. They are winning. The fight is leaving me."

Um...Prozac? You've had a pretty stressful life this last year. Even if you're not normally depressive, stress will do that to people. Getting help for anxiety/depression is way better than collapsing (I've tried it both ways). Of course, if you're ready to retire go for it--you've certainly earned it.

Jonathan-"For my freshmen, if they do super-lousy on an important exam, I make them study, and take a second exam. And occasionally, a third..."

I do the same with my freshmen in college calc. My must-pass item is derivatives. If you can't do them, the rest of the semester is toast.